Education sector aims at paradigm shift | Sunday Observer

Education sector aims at paradigm shift

13 March, 2022

Sri Lanka’s education sector has received a lot of flak for not keeping up with current demands and new world trends, making Sri Lankan students fall back when entering the job market. Although reforms were introduced from time to time, the education sector did not have much progress.

There were many issues to address; from curriculum reform, technological upgrade, teacher training, filling vacancies as well as attitudinal changes. Although some of these areas were focused on from time to time, reforms did not take place holistically so far.

The Sunday Observer spoke to Dr. Upali Sedere, Secretary to the State Ministry of Education Reforms, Open Universities and Distance Learning about the latest reforms to be introduced, which he said were comprehensive and considered all aspects of the sector to ready Sri Lankan students to global challenges. All reforms planned are in keeping with President

Gotabaya Rajapaksa mandate Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour, and the ministry has identified key thrust areas.

Preschool education

Preschool education is a priority area and the Ministry has drawn up a preschool policy in consultation will all stakeholders. So far, Sri Lanka did not have a preschool policy.

Following approval by the National Education Commission and the Cabinet, the Ministry has prepared the preschool education implementation plan with the participation of provincial officials. All documents have now been handed over to the State Ministry of Women and Child Development, Preschools and Primary Education, School Infrastructure and Education Services. The Ministry is implementing several programs according to this policy framework.

A preschool guidebook was also prepared for teachers with the support of the National Institute of Education, Maharagama.

The Ministry has finalised profiling schools to carry out the government plans to establish 1,000 + National Schools. On International Women’s Day (March 8), 10 National Schools were opened for girls in the nine provinces.

The 373 National Schools in the country are not equally distributed nor developed in a particular rationale. Out of the 312 educational divisions, 125 divisions did not have a single National School. The Ministry has already opened nine schools in the nine provinces out of the 125 divisions. This month, the Ministry will open another 16 National Schools from the nine provinces. Under this program, all districts in Sri Lanka will have at least one National School. The other 100 schools will be opened in the current quarter of the year.

Each National School principal has to identify a catchment area where students are expected to come from. In the catchment areas, the Ministry has identified other schools functioning around National Schools. Plans are afoot to develop this cluster of schools together.

In addition, the Ministry of Sports and State Ministry of Rural and School Sports Infrastructure Development will set up sports facilities for schools with minimal resources. A total of one-thousand schools were selected for this project. Moreover, the National Scouts Council will establish scouting, while cadetting and other clubs will be set up in all schools. The profile of the National Schools will be all inclusive, not only focus on academic work.

Administration

By 2025, the Ministry expects to change the system where schools are categorised into types. The main purpose is to establish equity – a good school for every child.

Currently, only 22 percent of the children enter good schools in Grade 1. Once 1,204 schools are established, 60 – 70 percent of children would be able to find good schools. Clustering for the entire country is being completed. The next stage is for the Ministry to work with the Provincial Councils to form school boards which include two to three clusters.

This is equivalent to the present educational divisions but they will have a bigger role as an academic supervisory body ensuring the equal allocation of resources. The school boards will be rationalised to provide good A/L education within the school board. Gaps will be identified by the boards, for example, allocating resources to the technology stream now in demand.

School clusters will be based on grade level. Clustering for the primary level has already begun to cover all primary schools. Junior secondary schools from Grade 6 – 9 will also be targeted. For National Schools, Grades 10 – 11 and 12 – 13 will be targeted in view of the national examinations.

Eventually, the current school structure will be replaced by Primary, Junior Secondary, and Senior Secondary schools. Similarly, educational zones will be formed joining several school boards. The current 100 educational zones, thus, will be increased to 120, equally distributing resources.

The Ministry also needs to fill about 6,000 – 7,000 principal vacancies, over 600 Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service vacancies and other positions.

Digitalisation

A digital administrative system will also be set up soon. Internet facilities will be provided to all schools with the support of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) and Information and Communications Technology Agency (ICTA). Last year, 650 National Schools received not only the fibre system but also the LAN system. Two hundred and fourty three schools received the Learning Management System which will also facilitate e-Thaksalawa. By May, the target is to add 215 more schools with optic fibre connections and LAN systems as well as set up a few classrooms with digital facilities. With a new curriculum implemented in all schools by January 2023, internet facilities will be an essential component.

All administrative work will be digitised and teachers will be trained in this regard. The 106 computer resource centres in each zone were upgraded with the last Budget and they are currently being used to train teachers on the blended mode for teaching, deviating from teacher-centred learning.

Curriculum changes

The education sector aims to completely move away from content-oriented learning to learning through activities. It will be converted to skills-oriented curriculum, implemented from Grade 1 – 6, and 8 – 10 in 2023 and the rest in 2024.

The first cohort of children under the new curriculum will sit the GCE O/L in August 2024. The entire curriculum is modular based which an average child can complete in 10 hours of study. These are mostly integrated content where various areas of learning such as Maths and Science, vocational skills will be included.

At present, Grade 1-6 and 8-10 modules are ready for piloting in 215 schools, adding an extra 20 National Schools to the program. By January, all modules will be ready. The assessment systems will have multiple measures including support of panels from outside. New assessment systems will be in place in each province. Testing will be performance-based than written.

Teacher training

With new curriculums, the Ministry has identified the basic need for teacher training and has already commenced the program. Teachers in 215 pilot schools will be trained on the blended mode before May. All teachers will receive initial training before introducing the curriculum in January 2023. Training will be supported by UNICEF and other organisations.

Awareness programs for teachers and principals are ongoing. Six hundred and fifty principals in National Schools received four-day training at Meepe. Next week, 125 new National School principals will be trained. Earlier, training was carried out on a cascade system where trainers train others. Failure of this system was identified and replaced with direct training using those deeply involved in the curriculum making. Teacher competency assessment is also in the pipeline. The aim is to get teachers out of the conventional approach to education.

Distance learning

Distance learning received greater attention due to the Covid pandemic. The national platform e-Thaksalawa and ‘Gurugedara’ channel enabled children to learn online. Both has made tremendous progress although issues regarding the lacking equipment still remain. However, the system covers all grades and has a updated learning management system. ‘Gurugedara’ is disseminated through Rupavahini, ITN, and Nethra channels although this will have to halt due to lack of funds.

However, Dialog has provided eight Nenasa channels airing educational programmes 24 hours a day. It is set to provide two more channels. Dialog has provided connections to 2,000 schools as well as smart televisions. Eventually, all 10,000 schools will get connections from Dialog or any other service willing to support. TRC will pay the Treasury to provide free internet to all schools.

Distance training guide is already in place and the programme expects to address teacher shortages.

Vocational education

The Ministry is also successfully linking vocational education with general education with the support of the Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training. A new A/L stream will be established for vocational education. Courses are diversifying while introducing career guidance and counselling to all schools. The National Planning Commission will allocate about 15,000 teachers and train them for vocational and career guidance, and counselling. A teacher will be appointed for every 500 children in this regard and will be launched by 2023.

The Ministry also focuses on inclusive education, covering special needs children with a separate group working on that.

Comments